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You Don’t Need a Recipe

YouDon’tNeedARecipe

My day job is recipes. As the food editor of The New York Times and the founding editor of NYT Cooking, I spend a lot of time laying out strict instructions for how best to prepare specific dishes. These recipes take a particular form: a list of ingredients followed by step-by-step directions for how to use them. I think of these recipes as sheet music, a form of notation that allows home cooks to recreate the cooking of others.

But I don’t just cook with recipes, and I am not alone. Indeed, cooking without recipes is a kitchen skill same as cutting vegetables into dice. It’s a way to improve your confidence in the kitchen and to make the act of cooking fun when sometimes it seems like a chore.

Every Wednesday for the past four years, I have published on The New York Times one of these no-recipe recipes. What follows are some highlights from our archive of them, suggestions for things you might cook yourself, without a recipe.

Fettuccine With Ricotta and a Fistful of Mint

Vegetables

Mushroom Toast With Pea Purée

Miso-Glazed Eggplant With a Bowl of Rice

Grilled Broccoli With Soy Sauce, Maple Syrup and Balsamic Vinegar

Kale Salad With Cranberries, Pecans and Blue Cheese

Peanut Butter Sandwich With Sriracha and Pickles

Eggs

Grilled Cheese With Jalapeño, Tomato and Fried Egg

Savory French Toast With Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

Fried Egg Quesadilla

Soft-Boiled Eggs With Anchovy Toast

Produced by Krysten Chambrot, Kim Gougenheim, Umi Syam and Emily Weinstein. Photographs by David Malosh for The New York Times. Food styling by Simon Andrews. Prop styling by Paige Hicks. Video by Meg Felling, Devon Knight and Jason Lee. Special thanks to Mark Josephson and Jenny Rosenstrach.